parmeZHAN and de/not voicing final vowel

[Laurence Horn]

>Not that I admit to actually renting _The Sopranos_, but pretty
>clearly they've been voicecoached to, among other things, not voice
>the final vowel on words such as parmegiano and prosciutto.
>beth

Right; that's standard in New Haven Italian and Italo-English as well
(aBEETS, muzzarELL, capigol), but what puzzles me is the
de-affricatization on "parmigian-".  Granted, it would be a least
effort phenomenon, but how general is it?  Can I expect "azhita" for
"agita"?  More relevantly, would someone (rather than cheese) who
comes from Parma be called "un Parmi-ZHAN" rather than "un
Parmigian(o)"?  Or is only the cheese that results in the
fricativization of the affricate?

larry

>
>>>>  Ittaob at AOL.COM 10/01/02 12:31 PM >>>
>In a message dated 10/1/02 11:59:06 AM, pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU writes:
>
><< Now the invented "Parmesian" seems to have been
>supplanted by the equally invented "parmeZHAN" (as also noted by Peter
>Richardson), apparently via the line of reasoning: "To make a word sound
>more foreign, and hence more authentic, stress the last syllable, pronounce
>spelled <g> as 'zh' and ignore all other spelling cues." >>
>
>I suspect "Par-me-ZHAN" comes from Italian-Americans pronouncing it that way
>based on the Italian pronunciation of "Parmigiano." In other words, a
>conflation of "Par-me-ZAN" with "Par-mi-JAN-o."
>
>Steve Boatti